Built a cabin and neighbour not happy.

[ReginaaPhalange]

This week, we built a cabin in our back garden and we have complied 100% with guidance which states the highest point must not exceed 2.5m in height. Our cabin is 2.3m at its highest point. We have not put it up against the fence, we have left a good amount of room to fit an adult down the back and around the sides for painting, maintenance and pick up any weeds etc.

On Tuesday, my DH was doing the roof and his bottle of water went into the neighbours garden. This neighbour lives at the back of us, so I went round and politely advised her of what had happened and asked if I could go into her garden and collect the bottle of water and any off cuts that may have come away too. She allowed me to do this and there was literally the water and one small piece of wood, so I took that away and said to my DH who was still on the roof to be careful and he even shouted over to the neighbour to apologise.

When I went to leave, she came out her back door (we were keeping 2m apart) and started saying she's not happy about the cabin, said it's in her view when she looks out of her kitchen window and told me she had spoken to her children (they're away from home with kids etc so probably similar ages with me (30's) )and her kids were apparently not happy either Incase it blocks out the sun. I can confirm when I went round, this was not the case, the sun was beating down and her garden was not obstructed.

Further more, the neighbour said she was not happy that we had not told her of our plans and that we should have told her. I did tell my husband prior to delivery of the cabin that we should maybe tell her, but he said as it was within the guidance of height etc, it did not require planning permission and he didn't need to advise her. In hindsight I wish I maybe did give her a heads up.

Yesterday when DH was tidying up the edging of the room, he overheard the neighbour moaning on the phone saying it's such an eye sore, how it was just there when she came home and how disappointed it is. Now, I fully understand if she had beautiful views from her kitchen window, but she doesn't. Her window looks out to her back garden, fence then the back of our house.

Today, her friend walked around to our house, stood at the end of my driveway, looked into the garden, shook her head and walked away. I didn't say anything as I had just come out the shower and still had my towel around me (I was looking out for the yodel courier when I noticed it).

Further more, 3 years ago, when me and DH were at work, she had her BIL hack away the base of our fence so she would double panel the fence. The fence is owned by us and on our boundary and she acknowledged that, but she never told us she was going to do it. We just found out when we came home from work to find half the base of our fence gone!! We never kicked off, we actually went to her door to ask her if we could panel OUR fence up the back. She was fine and so were we. We have never spoken to her since as you can't see her in the garden as fence is double panelled, we live on different streets so we both have different entrance/ exit routes and our paths have never crossed so it's not a case of avoiding her.

Earlier when I was upstairs I noticed her at the fence (I was talking out to husband asking what he wanted for lunch). She was snooping around and I can only think she was maybe looking for off cuts which fell into her garden, but DH said there's definitely nothing there as he peeked over and checked.

I'm not sure if I should say something to her or just leave it and just hope she leaves it alone, but our neighbours next door who we get on brilliantly with have said they have had problems with her snooping before, peeking over the fence and asking when they had a baby as she saw baby clothes on the line (they have never spoken to her before)

3 years ago btw, she told us her name was (let's say) Barbara (not her real name), but when I was speaking to her on Tuesday, I said "it's Barbara isn't it?" And she said "no, it's Mavis(changed)." I found that a bit off too.... even DH had said to me no, she definitely told us her name was Barbara(charged).

Odd... anyway, I digress. Should I leave it or approach her about it, maybe give her flowers as an apology for not telling her about the cabin?

Cabin will be used as a wee gym for me (treadmill and weights) and she knows this. She did say "thank god it's not a hot tub"

@ZombieLizzieBennet

Exactly! everyone says its out of "politeness" but what if they say no, please dont do it, what then? you say well tough I'm doing it anyway!- thats bloody WORSE than simply not telling them!

She did say "thank god it's not a hot tub"
Enjoy your new cabin, and buy yourselves a hot tub 👍

People take kindness and consideration for weakness unfortunately. This is a situation to ignore. You have done nothing wrong. She just sounds like she has lots of time on her hands

Sod her. Enjoy your cabin x

Another here saying ignore her. If you hear her moaning when you’re out there enjoying your home gym, just pop in some headphones. In fact, always have them in when you’re down there and you can use as excuse to ignore her.

I would say, when our back neighbour Built an ugly looking shed the other side of our garden fence, it did look ugly from our side. So I planted leylandi across the back and I now see a lovely tall hedge instead with added bonus of sense of privacy as no one can see into the back of my house.

I hate people like this. Have they really nothing more to worry about? Don't know how they'd cope on my street. We live wedged between students and when I look out of my window I can see two old sofas, a mattress and an incredible amount of litter. Not my garden, not my problem.

Getting flowers for her is an admission you did something wrong and will feed this. Just ignore it.

@millydilly 'No, of course they don’t. How many people have their sheds in the middle of their gardens? Surely we all have them next to the fence?'

It depends on roof height. If it is over 2.5m it needs to be more than 2m from the boundary
www.cranegardenbuildings.co.uk/articles/planning-permission-for-garden-buildings

I would say that after your chat and her suggestion of a hot tub that you have decided it would be a fab idea to do that instead! Especially for parties. Thank her for her idea as you hadnt thought of it before she mentioned it!!! Lol

If possible I would put trellis behind it on the fence so she can't see it anyway.

Another one to say buy a hot tub!

I remember seeing a ground force episode on this, the neighbours complained. Tommy got arsey and said “it’s wood, it’s a temporary structure, it’s legal”. The director went round to sort it. In the end they either planted “mile a minute” behind it, or gave the complainer a few pots of “mile a minute” to plant in their garden. (They may of painted the back green as well). Is saying “the cabin stays, however we can paint the back a green colour, and offer you some plants you can put in that will disguise it an option?

Perhaps you should have warned them before you started, but that is too late now.

I am with your neighbours in being glad you have no hot tub though.

Here are the definitive planning regs for England on the issue of sheds & other outbuildings:

www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/43/outbuildings

You definitely DON'T need planning permission for the scenario you've described as long as the height of the shed doesn't exceed 2.5m.

Is it the actual cabin she doesn’t like or her view? Could you plant sone shrubs behind it (if room) they grow pretty quickly and would make view nicer.

My neighbours erected a shed a few years ago, and I wasn't madly happy but they were within their rights to do so. I therefore glared at it once (the neighbour saw me glaring) and ignored it from then onwards. If it's not in breach of planning laws, there's nothing she can do about it. If she moans to you, say you've kept to planning laws. People are funny about all sorts of things.

@binny36 SHE can plant the shrubs.

My Sister had this with her neighbour, her partner built a cabin in their back garden (problem neighbour was to the side of them), they didn’t need planning permission and they were very particular is doing all the necessary checks as they knew neighbour would kick off.......and she did.

Local council surveyor came out to inspect and seen that the cabin was well within Permitted size without planning permission. There was nothing neighbour could do. She did end up escalating problems though when she reported my sister and her partner for having “illegal Immigrants” living in the cabin, of course when that was checked out by the authorities they realised the neighbour was a complete fruit cake.

Ignore your neighbour she counts bonkers

Watch you're not in a Conservation area (we are) because you require PP for everything. It pisses me off when my neighbours do things without PP mostly because they're dodging the £200 PP fee that we've paid each change we've made.

My next door neighbour's father lives in a building at the end of an ordinary town garden, the side of which partly forms my boundary.

I had no idea this could be illegal but as it doesn't affect me I wouldn't report them.

People like to complain about everything these days, your neighbour should plant up the end of her garden if she doesn't like the view.

I think you just need to ignore.
She’s older, she’s a bit nosey probably very lonely and you’ve actually given her something to talk about!!.

Enjoy your cabin and leave Mavis to moan.

She'll get over it when something else takes her attention. I would just carry on as normal, smile and wave at her or say hello when you see her, but definitely do NOT buy her flowers.

Sounds like you were entitled to build it and she is entitled to dislike it. I agree you should have told her before you put it up, just for politeness.

She cant make you remove it and you can't make her be happy about it, so enjoy your cabin and let her moan.

Not for a moment suggesting that you would do it, but I'd be interested if her 'issues' would be suddenly resolved and she'd dance and clap her hands with glee if you offered to fit a special panoramic, all-weather, high-definition 'NP-Cam' camera to the front of the cabin, trained across the whole garden and directly into your house, connected to a huge screen on her side of the fence. When she asks what kind of device an 'NP-Cam' is, say you think it's named after Ngosi Parker, the very clever African physicist who invented it.

Surely, that can be her only valid 'reason' - it doesn't block out her light, it's just a plain, ordinary wooden cabin/shed, not a pile of manky old poo-stained mattresses and burned-out rusty motorbikes. How else does it possibly affect her, other than stopping her from checking up on everything you do?

the stabbing cabin 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂